First Nuclear-Armed Sub to Be a Museum

The first submarine to carry nuclear missiles set out Sunday on a voyage that will end in New York, where it will become the second floating museum on the Hudson River, alongside the aircraft carrier Intrepid.

The 317-foot-long, 2,500-ton steel vessel will be opened to the public this spring as the world’s only nuclear-missile submarine museum, exhibit director Larry Sowinski said.

Newer, more sophisticated submarines could never go on exhibit because arms treaties between the United States and the Soviet Union require that decommissioned nuclear submarines be dismantled, Sowinski said. The Growler was being towed from Washington state to Florida for a make-over expected to take several months.